Knowledge is power, and in business, an essential part in creating a competitive edge. Throughout history, the acquisition and reuse of knowledge has always been the key to success. Today, the systems and infrastructure for knowledge reuse are in place and very effective, but we must abandon the reliance on technology to answer all our remaining needs in this area. Computer databases are only as good as the individuals who enter the data. It's time to refocus on the human, natures own mechanism, which holds in it, perhaps the most powerful and vast of all database systems, the brain. We must nurture, guide, encourage, and train it to fulfill its own amazing potential. The theme of this research is to explore Markus¡¦ (2001) nascent theory of knowledge reuse, which focuses on the greater importance of the system, rather than the individual. This research focuses on the individual, and a conceptual framework is developed for future empirical research. Within this framework, there are seven factors: characteristics of knowledge producers and re-users, the role of human intermediaries, social presence, knowledge quality, document quality, and organization factors all of which affect the intention of knowledge reuse. There are four human factors which stand at the forefront of improving knowledge reuse today: 1. The knowledge provider who can express tacit knowledge in the most explicit manner; 2. The intermediary who can not only grasp the importance contained within the source material, but anticipate how best to format it so it will be useful to a wide variety of re-users; 3. The level of feedback from re-user, and the willingness of providers and intermediaries to accept this feedback, and adapt to the ever-changing needs of the re-user; and 4. Social presence enhances the ability to obtain tacit knowledge and has a positive affect for strong intention of reuse.

Knowledge management is one of main sources of competitive advantages. It said in a KPMG(1998)'s survey that the obstacle of knowledge flows between knowledge sources and knowledge receivers is the biggest bottleneck of knowledge exploitation. In the domain of knowledge management, there are prolific academic studies about knowledge flow. However, lots of them focus on the factors infecting knowledge flows between knowledge sources and receivers. Fewer researches discuss about the process and context of knowledge flows while implementing knowledge management in an organization. In this thesis, we try to research the process of knowledge flows while implementing knowledge management in an organization in order to understand how these knowledge flows affect the organizational learning results upon the knowledge of knowledge management. We try to answer how knowledge of knowledge management(KKM) flows, what the processes are, and find out the accelerating factors and obstacles of these knowledge flows. We use theoretical sampling to select the companies implementing knowledge management and grounded theory to analysis the processes and context of knowledge flows while implementing knowledge management. After drawing a serious of figures of knowledge flows and inductive analysis, we get three discoveries: 1. The 3 stages of the KKM flows. 2. The 8 kinds of KKM flows and their importance in each KKM flow stages. 3. The accelerating factors and obstacles KKM flows in each KKM flow.

This resreach discusses how the organization knowledge establishes itself in different steps during the process of developing a new product. The four crucial force (including technology push¡Bmarket pull¡Bfocus strategy¡Bcompetitive advantage) which affects the development of a new product function basing on the fundemental models of Leonard-Barton (1995) and the four models of Nonaka(1994). The force will interact with one another and create the spiraling of the organization knowledge. The research chooses a leading transportation manufacturer as the study case. The four steps of developing its new product are integrated into an individual case. The organization knowledge is accumulated, communicated, applied, integraged, and innovated while executing the business, applying the resource of technology, being inspired by the culture of the enterprise, as well as cooporateing with the other companies. We learned from the research that we need to understand the mechanics of the organization knowledge and to know how to apply the agent of the knowledge if we need the knowledge to be fast and unexhausted. We are to create the four force of a new product, as well as the mechanics of selecting the organization knowledge and the right direction to which the knowledge will guide us. The organization base cooperates with the execution of business, and each individual takes his or her part in the case. Thus the personal and the social knowledge can be combined and carried out effectively and established into systematic graph via socializaiton, internalization, externalization,combination. Therefore, the model of creating the organization knowledge of enterprise is formed step by step. The organization knowledge can be the core potencial and asset of the enterprise, and it will be advantage while competing with other enterprises. As for the new product, it is the full presentation of the organization knowledge of an enterprice.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the suitable practice and model of knowledge management for CSBC through the action progress of developing a prototypical knowledge system intended for management of Full Specification. This study belongs to action research. The experiment field was Basic Design Section of Design Department in CSBC. It targeted at the shipyard¡¦s core knowledge--Full Specification to develop a prototypical knowledge management system of Full Specification. Through reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action in the process of developing system, the problems and dilemmas encountered by each action plan were reflected to seek for solutions and to revise the action plan. Then the knowledge management system was built. From the progress of action plan, it sought for new findings which can be the reference for CSBC to promote knowledge management continuously. The results of this study were as follows: 1) The environment of knowledge management was built by creating the open working platform. And a prototypical knowledge management system of Full Specification was built by learning-from-action. 2) By the participating, planning, learning of practitioners, it was helpful to emerge the future scenario of knowledge management and the common consensus to advance the knowledge management. 3) The model of organization learning and knowledge sharing was found. If the model combined with the knowledge management system, it was helpful to form the procedure of creating knowledge. 4) The reference frame of action research for knowledge management and the driven model of knowledge management for CSBC were developed.

In this thesis, we propose a knowledge map integration system to merge distributed knowledge maps into a global knowledge map based on the concept mapping methodology. This system performs the functions of knowledge map integration and knowledge map maintenance. The knowledge map integration function integrates different local knowledge maps specified by distributed organizations into a global knowledge map, and knowledge seekers can access the overall knowledge structure about the domain knowledge. Besides, the local knowledge maps in different organizations vary dynamically due to accumulation of information. Consequently, the demand for knowledge map maintenance increases in order to keep the global knowledge map up to date. The function of knowledge map maintenance can update the variations of every local knowledge map, and change the global structure simultaneously. The knowledge map integration system is evaluated by master thesis repository at National Central Library, and we obtain good results.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesauri have been important information and knowledge organisation tools for more than three decades. The recent emergence and phenomenal growth of the World Wide Web has created new opportunities to introduce thesauri as information search and retrieval aids to end user communities. While the number of web-based and hypertextual thesauri continues to grow, few investigations have yet been carried out to evaluate how end-users, for whom all these efforts are ostensibly made, interact with and make use of thesauri for query building and expansion. The present paper reports a pilot study carried out to determine the extent to which a thesaurus-enhanced search interface to a web-based database aided end-users in their selection of search terms. The study also investigated the ways in which users interacted with the thesaurus structure, terms, and interface. Thesaurus-based searching and browsing behaviours adopted by users while interacting with the thesaurus-enhanced search interface were also examined.

This is a preliminary scan of S.R. Ranganathan's Philosophy of Library Classification (1989 Indian reprint edition). Contents include: Conspectus, 8 chapters, and Index: 1. Evolution of classification. 2. Library classification: an artificial language. 3. Library Classification and social forces. 4. Library classification as a transformation and its limitations. 5. Library classification and its symbiosis with library catalogue. 6. Capacity of library classification. 7. Increasing of dimensions and optional facets. 8. Organisation for research in library classification. © Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science (SRELS). This is a title in the dLIST Classics project; permission for non-profit use granted by SRELS. To purchase print reprints of this work, please visit Ess Ess Publications at http://www.essessreference.com/.

A major challenge faced by users during the information search and retrieval process is the selection of search terms for query formulation and expansion. Thesauri are recognised as one source of search terms which can assist users in query construction and expansion. As the number of electronic thesauri attached to information retrieval systems has grown, a range of interface facilities and features have been developed to aid users in formulating their queries. The pilot study reported here aimed to explore and evaluate how a thesaurus-enhanced search interface assisted end-users in selecting search terms. Specifically, it focused on the evaluation of users' attitudes toward both the thesaurus and its interface as tools for facilitating search term selection for query expansion. Thesaurus-based searching and browsing behaviours adopted by users while interacting with a thesaurus-enhanced search interface were also examined

This is a presentation to the Strong Start program (new MLS students) at the University of Arizona on 19 August 2002. There are 32 slides. Contents: Definitions, Assumptions, Limitations; What are Information Environments? The Roles We Play; Knowledge Organization (KO); The Cataloging/Metadata Process; Metadata â standards, types, initiatives; Q & A; Discussion; Resources. Interestingly, dLIST is mentioned and volunteers solicited!